RISE adopted a new format for its internal workshops. They now comprise two sections. We first present and discuss one of our own recent paper or research projects. Thee second section is similar to what was called “RISE Literature Workshops” in the past. There, we discuss literature relevant the conceptual and empirical research conducted at RISE

In one of their recent projects, Grand and Martignoni (2006) investigated the effects of imperfections in knowledge transfer on the emergence of organizational knowledge. Contrary to common wisdom, the results of our agent based simulation suggest that small perturbations in knowledge transfer can positively affect organizational learning performance even if these biases are stable over time or shared by all members of the organization. In our discussion, we focused on methodological issues. For example, while agent based simulations allow to quantitatively investigate phenomena traditional empirical research can hardly capture the mechanisms resulting in the emergence of these phenomena remain hidden.

In their work, Gomez and Jones (2000) sketch an alternative axiomatic core for economic theory. They argue that in a perfect world envisioned by standard economic theory, a world without asymmetries and imperfections in knowledge, rationality can not be achieved under uncertainty. Under uncertainty, coordination among economic actors can only be achieved through conventions. Thus, deviations from rationality have a social function of coordinating actions among economic actors. Consequentially, coping with uncertainty becomes not a problem of rationality but of rationalization.

Literature:

Grand, S, & Martignoni, D. 2006. Organizational Learning Through Imperfect Knowledge Transfer – An Agent Based Simulation. Working Paper submitted to the Academy of Management Conference 2006

Gomez, P.Y & Jones, B. 2000. An Interpretation of Deep Structure in Organizations, Organization Science, 11(6): 696-708